withheld by her upon the same principles that we have never
interfered with hers, and that if she should interfere, as
she may, by measures which may have a great and dangerous
recoil upon ourselves, we might be called, in defence of our
altars and firesides, to take an attitude which would cause
our neutrality to be respected, and choose peace or war as
our interest guided by justice, should counsel?

"The acceptance of this invitation, therefore, far from
conflicting with the counsel or the policy of Washington, is
directly deducible from and conformable to it. Nor is it
less conformable to the views of my immediate predecessor,
as declared in his Annual Message to Congress of the 2d
December, 1823."

President John Quincy Adams. Communication to the House of
Representatives, in answer to their Resolution of Inquiry,
regarding the proposed Panama Congress, March 15, 1826.

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE REDEDICATED TO THE PRESERVATION OF
THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN, AT
GETTYSBURG.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on
this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether
that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated,
can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that